Today's News

Hi everyone,

Just spoke to Karon and John for a while. They are well, and having a rare quiet evening to recuperate from all their socializing. They are glad to be in a position of having social invitations to turn down so they can have some down time before their big day on Monday.

Tomorrow, their friend Betsy, who many of you may remember from earlier on, will be returning to Uralsk to get her new daughter. They are looking forward to seeing her again.

Also, the computers are fairly finicky. So, after a number of tries today, Karon said she just gave up.

But they're so glad you're all there and reading along. Your support means the world to them!

Love,
Aunt Sharron

A word on comments

Hi everyone, Sharron here ~

You can still leave comments. They are just set to be private for the next few days. Here is how you do it: at the bottom of the entry, you will see a tiny little box that looks like an envelope. Click on that envelope. That will take you to a place where you can leave comments as before. The only difference is that they will go directly to Karon and John via e-mail, rather than being posted on the blog. Don't worry, all will be back to normal very soon!

Love,
Sharron

5 more days until court

There is not a huge amout new to report today. We did however finaly get to go swimming in the river. It was everything I dreamed it could be. It was so nice to be cool and not hot and sticky for a change. We rented a boat with two of our Kazakh friends and swam off of it. After that we went over to the Pushkin and had dinner with the Delarosa Family. I will say that the mosquitoes are out in full force here and they are vicious at the bus stops. Currently our translator has asked us to not be out after dark. While we are usualy good about this, the whole deal wtih Mosquitos at dusk is definately a motivator for us to head home earlier.

Our little baby turned 8 months today. He is still very small, but he is growing everyday. He is getting closer and closer to siting on his own and now he will scoot to something if we let him push with his feet off of our hands.

We also found out today that we will all three be able to fly back together. Currently we are on a wait list for a flight on the 13th of June. I am still waiting to find out what this means and times. Everyday he bonds more and more with us and we can not wait for Monday to come.

A note about comments: My sister has been editing the blog and will be fixing the problem with the comments soon so that you can leave them and we can read them again. I love hearing from you and it feels a little sad to not be able to read them today. I would fix the problem myself but unfortunately all of the directions are in Russian.

6 Days to Court

I can not thank you all enough for your kind words of encoragement. It means a lot to us that you are are still hanigning in there with us on this epic journey. You are all correct in that we are so close to the finish line and at least now we know where it is. Today our big adventure was getting to leave the Baby house to go and get his passport photos. To put it in perspective the only other time he was ever in a car was to be moved from the maternity hospital to the baby house. He did wonderful and was very interested in this new adventure. He was relaxed and curious and I am so glad as it gives me confidence that he will do pretty good on our long journey home. The other big thing is that he is getting really good at cuddling. He is liking to be held more and more. As far as return dates, John is still up in the air as he really does not want to leave us early. Heidi if you are reading this please feel free to share your thoughts with us by e-mai. It looks like Baby bug and I will be leaving on June 12th or 13th depending on the time of the flights. I will definately post this information as soon as I hear back from the travel agent.

So on a different note I thought that I would write a bit of advice for future travelers to Kazakhstan.

1. Learn as much Russian as you can, it will greatly increase your experience here. I used Pimsler language program and we have the lonely planet phrase book.

2. Make friends with locals.

3. Bring shoes that are easy to slip on and off because you must take your shoes off almost everywhere.

4. If you are comming in mid to late May plan on it being stifeling hot.

5. We were told the people here don’t wear jeans or shorts, this just is not true. However people here do dress nicely, so the jeans are clean and designer not ratty. Sun dresses are in as well as pretty skimpy 80’s style clothes. So if you have really been dying to wear that min-skirt and leg warmers with high heals again, this is your big chance!

6. Plan to be here a very long time, if you are here less great, but don’t expect it.

7. Despite what your agency might tell you, if you are on a tight budget and can hold your own there are inexpensive apartments you can rent by the week. It helps if you can read Russian to prevent being taken advantage of. Translating the classifieds is how we learned to read.

8. Don’t go out after dark and don’t go into places that don’t have a lot of people around.

9. Be open to trying new things, especialy foods.

10. When you order a pastry look forward to the adventure of finding out what is inside. It will never be quite what you expected.

11. If you are on a budget don’t eat at resturants at the Atrium. It is good but the prices are the same as at home. We save eating there for very special occasions.

12. Never leave home with out some sort of pocket dictionary or translator, a small note book and a pen. This makes communication possible and helps you see why pictionary is an important game to prepare one for traveling.

13. If you plan to adopt an infant, bring a baby bajorn, it is worth its weight in gold.

14. Bring a blanket for your child as the baby houses will not let them lay on the carpet and the blanket will be a familiar item by the end of your adventures.

15. If you are adopting a child that is speaking age learn the phrases from "Russian for Adoptive parents" Do this before you come. It is too hard to learn on the spot.

15. Bring more money that you think you will need. If you are wondering why refer back to #6.

I hope this helps some one somewhere who will be here in the future.

We have a court date…

Well the powers that be have decided that while we have been granted a wonderful baby boy, a great ethical agency and wonderful friends, that time is just expected to go very slowley for us while we are here. We can not guess the reasons and we are trying very hard to trust the process yet we were told today that court will not be until Next Monday!!! This means another week of waiting. So once again we have asked to stay in our apartment longer, until Sunday, so that we can keep our heads financialy above water.

We did at least find out that tomorrow we can take our baby boy to get his passport pictures so that this process can get started. I can’t wait to see how he handles the car. It should be an interesting trip. So here is our new schedual: We will have court on Monday, then fly to Almaty on Wednesday the 6th. John will fly home ASAP so he can get back for work, and I will fly on the 12th or 13th. It will be a long trip but we are ready for it. I could really go for some Mexican or Thi food about now and just the comforts of home, but pretty much the Judge here does not care about what I could go for. I am very sorry to the Seattle crowd about the “comming home part.” I hope it is not too much of a pain to postpone it. I e-mailed Josylyn the details.

As soon as I am done at the internet cafe we are going with friends to the park and the river to go swimming. I am very excited as I have been wanting to do this for a while. After thre river we are goning to a party for one of the peace corps volunteers who is leaving soon. It should be a lot of fun and will hopefuly make the days until our son is officialy ours go a little quicker.

Thanks also for the news from home. I it seems so far away and it is even a little bit hard to imagine. Is anyone from Dayville still following along? Rachel, I am sorry I missed the concert to. I will just have to make up for it next year when you are even that much better! Didgett, I am intruged to find out what you mean, but hey I am sure you would be a great mentor for me in a new area:) Also, Hiedi if you are reading along, as much as John hated to miss Memorial Weekend he did make it a point to rent a boat and float on the Ural River on Saturday. Not quite the same as home, but soon enough he will be back for work.

Bush Legs

One of the fun things we spend a lot of time doing with our Kazakh friends is explaining the many slang words that have found their way into our vocabulary. Last night we learned our first Russian slang. We were with our friends at a resturant and they were helping us translate the menu and stated that the item was “Bush Legs.” We asked, “What does this mean?” They then explaind that Senior President Bush negotiated the importation of chicken legs into USSR and since then they have called them Bush legs not chicken legs...

I am sure that you decided to read our blog this morning to learn this interesting fact. But I will spend some time telling you about our never ending story of our time in Kazakhstan. While we have been rolling with the punches of delay after delay, my patience for this process is almost gone. We have decided to stay in our apartment a few more days to save more money. We had agreed to go back to the Pushkin today but since pre-court is not until Monday we will now go back on Tuesday. We are really really hoping the court will be on Wednesday so that we can bring him home with us and then leave for Almaty on the next Monday. This is what we are really hoping for so that we can be back on the 7th of June. We will know more on Monday.

The other really great thing is that our boy is starting to feel better and has been full of giggles. It is amazing how happy it makes us when he smiles and giggles. We can not wait to share him with all of you. Today we had two great visits with him. Now that he is feeling better we are continuing to excersize him and he is starting to push more with his legs. He is also ok with us putting him on his belly again and will roll around while making gurrling noises. It is pretty darn cute!

Last night we had another wonderful evning with our friends. Yezbo came over and had dinner with us then Nayda and Anure came. We all went to the Pushkin and visited with the Deloros’s. Our friends seem to be enjoying meeting our American friends. Tomorrow we will only get to visit our Boy once so I think that we will get to go swimming on Saturday or maybe we will go to the second hand stores looking for more cool clothes.

Still here and waiting

Above you can see us with some of the baby house staff plating apple trees.

As always we have been very busy, but I have found a few minutes to hit the internet cafe for an update. Yesterday while I was at the cafe, John cam by with a couple of our friends. We all decided to go to the Victory cafe next to the WW II monument. It was very cool as it is all outdoor seating and they have a big open pit fire for BBQ. We all ate shish cabobs and we learned lots of Russian and Kazak and our friends got a lot of practice with their English. Unfortuantely though the waitress tried to over charge us. We did show her how much it should have cost and then she still had 120 tengay too much but would not bend on it. Unfortunately we did not have enough, so our evening became even more interesting. We ended up going by the Pushkin to exchange money there but they were not supper helpful. So Nayda, Aunre and I went up and visited with an American family staying there while John and Yezbo went back to the appartment to get more money. Eventualy it was all solved and in the mean time friends were made and we hade cookies that were very good.

Today we have had two wonderful visits with our son. He was in such a good mood this morning. John would pretend sneeze and he would just start laughing outloud. It was so funny to see over and over again. He tired of it much sooner than we did. For lunch today we went and had pizza at McJohn’s in the artrium and then came home for all of five minutes.

This afternoon he was a little fussier at first but after a little more coughing he felt better and mellowed out. We are mailnly having a lot of down time with him right now until he feels better. If we get him too excited he starts to cough more. It is also a million degrees in the room we see him in. They will not let us have the window open and they insist that he is covered head to toe. I am looking very forward to breaking him out. Hopefuly this time next week he will be ours forever.

We have a pre-court date . . .

Hello Everyone,
This is the third or fourth attempt at updating the blog so hopefully it will be a successes this time. As today is day 14 of visiting we were able to turn in our paperwork to court. We were hoping to go to pre-court on Thursday or Friday but as with all things here it will be later than we hoped. We will have pre-court on Monday at 10 am and after that we will find out about real court which we really pray will be on Wednesday so that we can bring him home with us. Also this will be the day we can post pictures and divulge the name. So hang in there. Our patience for this process is wearing pretty thin, and it is very frustrating to have it made clear over and over again that there is not a darn thing we can do to speed it up. This must be what women who have their baby’s late feel like.

Baby Bug is still coughing up a storm and does not seem to feel very well, but at least he is not getting worse. The baby house doctor finally agreed to give him some medicine and it seems to be helping. He also seems to be getting some bottom teeth and he loves to chew on things. He will get along with Asya (the neighbors puppy) quite well. He fell asleep in John’s arms the other day and John was such a proud papa when this happened. He said Jean was the last baby that felt comfortable enough around him to do this.

As far as our social life, it is busier than ever now that our time should be coming near the end. We have calls every night to go do things with many of the English students. This is always one of our favorite things to do here. Also, unlike Grant County it is very hot here now. We are talking in the 90’s with 75% humidity. As a result John and I had to break down and buy some summer clothes. I will post pictures this weekend once I can get to a reliable computer. We also have gone to a Russian Sauna (in case we were not sweaty enough). All I really want to do right now is go for a swim in the river. This is definitely on my Sunday plans and I doubt much could stop me.

There is now another American Family here adopting so it is nice to have their company, which will increase when we move back to the hotel. They were also able to deliver some much needed items (thank you Ed and Carol.) We are still not sure when we will get to come home but it should be on the 6th or 7th. If John needs to leave early for work I am trying to arrange our schedule with another woman who will need to fly alone with her new daughter. We will keep you posted as we find out this information.

I know that I am forgetting many details, but I am so overtired and sweaty right now that my brain is finished. I will write again tomorrow. As always thanks for the news from home. We are starting to miss it as we are allowing ourselves to think about Dayville more and more. Also Jeni- I m so glad to hear that Kerri is on his way home. Hopefully he will beat us there so he can meet his new nephew. Kelly John and I are in good health and we can not wait to have you out to Dayville when we return. Cindy_ I will think about Math.

Update from Aunt Sharron

Someimes when you're in a different part of the world, things work differently.

Like when you try to go to the internet cafe and write something, and four times it doesn't work.

Or when you watch TV and discover that all the American TV programs are from the 80s, dubbed by two people into Russian. In the programs, like Alf (anyone old enough to remember Alf?) people wear leg warmers and have big hair.

Then you walk down the street and gasp when you see people dressed like folks in the 80s TV shows.

Or when your hosts serve you horse meat (which, I was actually shocked to discover they eat in France, too, the day I passed a horse meat butcher in the South of France).

So, this is Sharron here writing to let y'all know that in spite of their best attempts to get to the internet cafe to write to all their fans today, Karon and John were not able to make contact.

But, they are alive and well and having fun with the little one.

For Mrs. Decker's students ~ she is *thrilled* that y'all have found the blog and are reading along. She is thinking of y'all a lot, too, and will have tons of stories to tell you when they get back home. She loved the things y'all wrote.

On the diaper question, I hear they won't feel qualified to make a decision until they've had a chance to see the evidence. . .changing hasn't been a part of their allowed responsibilities yet.

Let's see, what else?

I think that's it for now. Just thanks everyone so much for reading, for your prayers and support.

Love,
Sharron : )

Almost there!

Thank you all for your wonderful comments. It is so nice to hear from everyone and know that people are still reading along about our epic journey. Also thanks to my students who wrote. I miss you very much and I hope that you are hanging in there for these last few weeks of school.

We have had a very busy weekend as usual with many of our new found friends. After I wrote on Saturday we got to go to another visit with Baby Bug. We learned a very important thing about him yesterday. He has one powerful set of lungs. While we were waiting for our translator to bring him in we could hear a baby just wailing. We thought to each other, I wonder which kid that it is. We could see our translator walking down the hall with him in her arms and the bottle held away from him. He was screaming and crying and reaching with all of his might for that bottle and he could not understand why she would not give it to him. The look of suprise on his face when he saw us was priceless! He laughed stoped crying, then reached for the bottle again. Nedless to say we fed him right away. He also sounds like he is getting a cold. Much to our dismay the baby house director is blaming this on us because we took him outside on a 90 degree day (too cold for babies!). I am sure it was not that our translator was sick and handeling our baby boy last week! We both bit our toungs, because they feel very strongly here that sickness comes from being cold not from sharing germs.

After our visit we met with our friends from American Corner and had a picnic in the park. It was so much fun, and I even got to ride on my first ever ferris wheel. I would be lying if I said I was not a little scared. I am glad I did it though because we had a great view of the whole city. We also did a lot of walking around the park. I think the next time John and I go we will bring our swim suits so that we can swim in the river. It is VERY hot here now. After the picknick we hung out with Naydia and Andi close to our apartment just enjoying the evening outside.

Sunday was also a busy day even though we did not get to see our son. We instead met up with our friends Azahmat and Arman who had offered to take us on our tour of the new mousk in town. It was very beautiful and it was also nice to learn about their religion and see the very human side of Muslims rather than the propaganda from the news. Afterwards we had pitzza with them and then met with Anaglul and her friend to go shopping. Seeing as we only prepared for could weather I was on a mission to get some cooler clothes. They helped me find some sandals and a nice dress so I will not be so miserable.

Well I must sighn off for now. Jen, I am so excited to hear that Kerri might be back when we get home. This is wonderful news! We get to see our son two times today and we are also going to take our translator and driver out for lunch. Also we are buying apple trees today to donate to the baby house. We are very excited to have the chance to help them start an orchard.

When in Rome . . .

Well here we are again, with another week down. I am not sure how many weeks we have been in Uralsk but we have made it our home which makes the time go quickly. There are so many things that have happened since I wrote last but I will do my best to share as much as possible.

First and most importantly on Friday we were finally granted the privelage of seeing our son two times a day. Yeah!! This was great as he was so suprised to see us in the morning that he laughed out loud when they brought him to us. The other big thing is that because it is so warm here we are now allowed to take him outside. This is very exciting as he has never been outside before because he has only been here in the winter. He enjoyed his first trip very much and this is now something we get to do for 15 minutes of each visit. Ma and Don he now has the first flower and first bird on his life-time list. A sparrow and a lillac.

In our spare time (which is dwindling) we have been spending it with the many Kazakh friends we have here. On Thurday we managed to run into two girls from class that took us around the open markets and helped us to get a Kazakh- english dictionary. Too bad we are still very slow to learn the crylic alphabet. It is coming, but very slowly. Yesterday we did treat ourselves to a hot shower as we have been sponge bathing due to no hot water in our apartment for the last 5 days. It is very polluted here and muggy right now, so this was a necessity.

Yesterday was also the day that our landlady cleans the apartment. One thing about our apartment is that we found it through a friend of a friend sort of arrangement. We are well aware that we are paying above kazakh prices yet we are still getting an excellent deal compared to the hotel or agency apartments. So yesterday morning she comes over and we come back a few hours later to find her still there. Well she not only cleaned but she also stuffed our refigerator full of food including soups, meats and the most amazing pastries I have ever tasted. She has a heart of gold. John and I could not stop laughing at how well all of y’alls prayers are working for us.

Last night we were once again treated to the famous Kazak hospitality. When we had dinner at friends last week we were invited by the air traffic contoller to come to a birthday party at his house the next week. As with many things here, bits of details don’t always get translated so much of our outtings are surprises to us. We took a taxi to their house to find it to be absolutly amazing. The table must have been 12 feet long and set to feed 25 people. It was piled high with food and traditional dishes including Russian caviar, traditional breads and five fingers (yes we ate horse meat again.) We kept up the motto of “when in Rome...” and had a blast. The evening included, many toasts (too many toasts!), singing of folk songs, dancing and Kareoke of all things. They owner of the home also loved Elvis so he was at the party too. What a wonderful family!

What amazes us about our time here is having the opportunity to know people for who they are as individuals. Not as a religous group, former solviets, or Kazaks, but as real people with familes, homes, dreams, and worries ... We have been very honored and blessed to have had so many wonderful memories created through the friendships we have made here.

For all the loyal readers

Mornin, everyone,

Karon and I spoke for a long time yesterday. It was fun ~ I was on Google Earth (a very cool program that allows you to "fly over" anywhere in the world & look at satellite pictures, sometimes in great detail) while we were on the phone. I was clicking on pictures of various sights light the glass-domed mosque, the gold church, and the library. She would say "oh, that's near where our friend Yezbo lives," "that's where we go to the American corner to get books," or "that's where we saw a play that we didn't understand."

Very very cool.

Anyway, she said that they are going to a friend's place for their first hot showers in, oh, about 5 days. Now those of you who know Karon and John will know that there have been many times in the great outdoors where they have been without hot showers for such a long time. But there in the city, they are missing the conveniences of hot water.

So, because of that, because of the fact that this is the first day of 2 visits a day, and because their time in Uralsk may be drawing to a close, they are super-busy today. Luckily, they have made so many friends during their time there that now they are having to make sure that they see everyone before they go.

This post is to let y'all know that they probably won't make it to the internet cafe today, so let this serve as an update.

Enjoy!

Love,
Aunt Sharron

Day 8, 6 to go!

So the second half of our weeks are always busier than the first half. Yesterday we decided to go to McJohn’s for pizza even though it is a bit out of our price range. While there we rn into two friends from class and we told them that we were planing on going to the open market to find a few things. They decided that this would be a fun place to practice their English and learn new words so we all took off for the open market. The main market is like a Target or Walmar but there are hundreds of vendors. You can get some local crafts but most things are made in China (suprise suprise.) John has been wanting to find me a nice outfit here so the two girls had a blast showing us all the differnt clothing areas of the market. We walked so fast that I did not see much. We did find some Kazakh hats and a Kazakh – English dictonary We also went to the Moskow open market and what they called the Japanese market. It went on forever and we eventualy ran out of time.

When we got back to the apartment we left for our favorite part of the day. Spending time with the boy!!! They brought him to us right away today with a half filled bottel. Apparently he heard us come in and refused to eat. The caregiver haned him over and told me to finishe the job. No problemo. It is feeling much more natural to hang out with him. Natailia our Lawyer came by today and John had to write more letters, this time it was to petition the court for adoption. JED is working very hard on sitting up and is fasinated by the reach and grab game.

Today we should find out about our second visit tomorrow. We have lots planed for the next few days including a birthday party, a picnic, shoping with girls from class and getting ready for court. Right now we will spend time with Yezbo to help him practice for his job interview. It should be fun.

Half way through 7-7

Not much new to report today except that we are half way through the official visitation. It has been raining a lot here recently so this keeps us inside more than we really like. We should have a busy weekend coming up and we have also been told that on Friday we should start seeing him two times a day. YEAH! Yesterday we did the paperwork for his Visa and Passport. Our agency will mail this off to Astana so that our paperwork will be in order for court as soon as we are done with our official visits. We could really use some prayers that the judge will be able to have court with us shortly after our visits end and that we will be able to take him “home” with us that day. Beth and Linda, thank you so much for gathering things for us. We can not wait to get home and let him meet his fan club.

Day 6, 8 to go!

This picture is from the Victory Day celebration.


So here are the pictures of our spacious apartment as prommised.



After the excitement of the weekend we ended up haveing a fairly mellow Monday. It involved going to the internet cafe, having a very quick lunch, spending a wonderful hour with our son, going ot the notary, paying our weekly rent and reading.

Our visit yesterday was great. He was in such a good mood. We got him a rattle on Sunday and boy did he think it was a cool thing to wave around. We have also started on getting court paperwork together with our translator. She had us both sign papers yesterday to request his new birth certificate. John also had to write a letter petitioning the court for adoption in his own handwriting. The best part about this was that I got to play with our son for the first chunk of our visit. The baby house director also came in while we were visiing and told our translator that he is starting to miss us between visits. He wants to be held all of the time and apparently he is waking up early from his afternoon nap and waiting for us to arrive. They said he threw a fit yesterday afternoon when we did not show up. I offered to do some extra baby sitting if he was being a problem, but they did not say yes yet. We still have not been told when we will get to have two visits, but hey I will continue to be persistant.

I would also like to share with you the little games that we play to pass the spare moments here:

1. What is that sound? This is a game we play in the apartment a lot, as there are many mysterious noises.
2. What is that smell? This is an easy game to play thought the city. The answers range from cooked cabbage (a favorite here), to sewage, to leaking gas pipes. Although yesterday the lilacs began to bloom and it was wonderful!
3. What color will the water be today? Most of the time it is rust brown, but occasionaly we also get chunks of dirt in it.
4. What does this store sell? Not being able to read much Russian, and the fact that they do not have things in the window we just have to peak in stores to find out. It is a common game but can sometimes be embarrasing as not all doors lead to shops.

There are more, but they escape me for the moment. John is also working on a speech in Russian to explain the value of gravel. This idea does not translate well, but they have a serious need for the stuff. This has become his mission here and keeps him busy in our spare moments.

5 days dow, 9 to go

As we have traveled to many places throughout the world we have learned that every place has something that makes its people unique. We have had the opportunity while here to learn that the Kazakhs’ are famous for their hospitality. What a weekend we have had with all of our new friends that we have made here. On Saturday we did not only get to see our beauitiful son, we also spent time with our friend Yezbol at the Natural History Meuseum of Uralsk and we went to his apartment for lunch. It was such a treat to go to their Ecology museum. It is interesting for us because we are almost at the same latitude and ecological region as at home, so many of the plants, insects and widlife are similar to home. For my paleontolgy friends at home we also were able to see a small collection of fossils from the region. It was pretty interesting to talk about rocks in terms of their periodic elements. This translates better than common words.

After the museum and lunch we visited JED and I was treated to feeding him for the first time, but I have already writen about this so I will move on to our adventures of Satuday night.

On Saturday night we were invited to have dinner with the people who are renting us our apartment. This was a night that I think we will always hold dear in our expereinces in Kazakhstan. The man of the family came to pick us up in his Machina (car) with our friend Nadya (who speaks english very well.) Then we ended up driving to the outskirts of town to an area we call the cottages. It is as close to they get to suburbia here. The road to their house was dirt and very rutted from all of the recent rain. When we arived we were greeted by the woman of the house and then we met their two neighbors. One of them spoke english as he lived in London going to school to become an air trafic contoller.

Once there we all visited in a room like a parlor until dinner was ready. Imagine seven people in a room with the two host who know Russian, Kazah and a little German. John and I who know very little Kazak some Russian and John with his limitted German. Then there are two people besides us that can speak some English. Four of us are armed with Russian English dictionaries so that we can figure out unknown words, yet our biggest lesson learned here is that words have very little to do with communicating. Once seated the hostess brought in a huge platter of Bishmanpan (Five Fingers.) It is a traditional dish with noodles, potaotes, onions and horse meat. Fortunately for us the hostess was able to communicate that they are only able to get horse meat in the winter and that this meat was beef. You might wonder how this information was shared. With little plastic farm animals of course. I almost peed my pants when she started placing farm animal figurines by the food to show us what it came from. We might try this at the next resturant we go to. To start off the meal the filled our glasses with Vodka and beer and then the host took a helping with his hands (a tradition) and tasted it to make sure it was good enough for his guest. After this he toasted and we drank to good health and friendship across nationalities. Then our plates were filled. A note is that your plate will always be full, so every bite we took involved more food being put on our plate. This went on for quite some time with many more toasts made. Then the host asked us to put on our shoes and coats so we thanked them and assumed that the meal was over. Oh contrare, we were just going to look at their garden and their apple trees. Then we were back in for basicaly a second meal. This time there was a fish on the table the size of a tuna. I mean a whole fish and it was divided up with the head for the host and other big chunks for the rest of us. So we ate again and had more toasts. This eating lasted until almost 2 in the morning. The best was after we were all throughly stuffed we were treated to them singing beautiful Kazakh folk songs for us. We felt so honored to be their special guests. Eventually a taxi was called for us and we were wisked back to our apartment and off to bed laughing at our twist of events here and how delays sometime lead to wonderful opportunities.

On Sunday (mothers day.) I was denied the opportunity to see our son, but we did get to go to the park with a peace corps volunteer. It was wonderful to sit and talk with him and enjoy the beautiful day. We then had dinner with Matt and Betsy and bid them farewell for now. Now we only have a few more hours until we see our boy. We should find out today when we can start seeing him two times a day.

4 days down 10 to go

I only have a few minutes but I wanted everyone to know that we are doing great and staying very busy here. Yesterday was one of our most fun days in Kazakhstan as we were able to spend it with great friends. On Friday we e3nded up not having enough time to go the Ecology Museum so we went to the Library and got a new book for me and a learn to read Russian book for John. Baby Bug also is getting to where he realy wants to sit up and is grabing for objects and enjoying flailing them around. His slight lazy eye is also correcting it self with all of the extra attention he is getting. I really want to wright about our Saturday adventures but it must wait until I have more time. Our friends Matt and Betsy are leaving tomorrow so we are going to have lunch with them now and then at 3:00 we are meeting with a Peace Corps volunteer who lives in a nearby village. Tomorrow morning I should have more time to fill you in on our adventures.

Beth, we will only be in Seattle a few days before comming home. I do not currently have any infant stuff at home because we were not expecting there to be any children that were so small.

da zaftera (until tomorrow.)

Day 2, 12 to Go

Throughout this process I have fought all of my count down urges very hard and I must say I am impressed that I have made it this long. As always in the adoption process I am counting to an unknown time. While we finish our official visitation on the 23rd we still have to go to pre-court, then court which will most likely be on Memorial day. After court we should be able to bring him "home" then take the next flight to Almaty (they only fly on Mon, Wed, and Fri.) Once in Almaty we have meetings with the embassy and we will wait for his passport and visa. Yet this is still forever away.

After lunch we had a wonderful visit with JED (his initials, but not what we are calling him.) He was felling better today but still would be a little fussy and then wa la he would spit up all over me. For some reason John has still avoided this experience. I do belive it is only a matter of time:) He is very funny about his tummy time. When we lay him on his belly he grunts a lot (just like his papa) and tries to push up, then flops down. He is really working his new parents over. Beth I have heard those are good bottles too. We can not wait to get him home with some of the cool baby convineces that will help him a lot. The good news is that he is now very good at holdng his head up and is even pulling away trying to sit up.

After writing we met with a friend and had lunch. He is writing a presentation for a job interview and we are really pushing him to start practicing it with us as soon as possible.

After lunch we had a little down time at our apartment then we attempted to go to the Thursday class at the Eurrasian institute. Unfortunately it had been canceled so we met with some students in frount of the building then went out for pizza. It was nice to stay out late, and sadly I finished my book last night. I am going to have to see if I can borrow one from the American corner of the library to keep me entertained for the next few weeks. We also ran out of battery power on the dvd player last night and ended up watching poorly dubed over ER. That was some pretty interesting entertainment. OK, We are now heading to the Ecology musueum. This should be fun.

Day one 13 to go

We were lucky enough to catch a taxi back to our apartment so that we could grab a quick bite to eat before our visit with our boy. I really don’t think that he is 11 lbs yet. More like 9. He is however growing out of the 0-3 month clothes. I should be able to find out a lot more today because all of the paperwork problems have finally been cleared up. If we do not encounter any more problems we should be able to fly home by the 6th of June. John might need to come home early, but this will depend on flight scheduals and when our final court day will be. Baby bug was very uncofortable yesterday. They feed them very quickly and the bottles let a lot of air in, so he is very gassy when we see him. It is frustrating to only be able to comfort him and not be allowed to prevent the disscomfort. Only 14 more days until we can petition the court.

Thank you all of your comments on John’s Birthday. We love reading them and we wish that we had time to respond to everyone. Tom we are very glad to hear that this Sister’s house sold. (Nicky if you could share this with him since I know he won’t be reading it off the computer.) We thought about Tom a lot yesterday as we watched all of the celebrations for Victory day here. Talk about a way to show respect for their WWII veterans. It is too easy for us in the US to forget how many soldiers the Solviet’s lost fighting Germany (23 million.) It was also hard to see how few of those soldiers who lived thorough the war are still here. We will post some pictures tomorrow as we do not have our camera with us right now. Our friends Naydia and Olga called us up and invited us to the days activites. After the memorial service at the WWII monument we walked to the big park by the river. We did not have enough time to stay for long, but we have decided we will spend one of our Sundays there. We can also rent a boat so mabye this will be a late birhtday present for John.

I will take pictures of the apartment today so I can post them later. The internet cafe is pretty slow, but like the computers at school I am learning that some are faster than others. Thank you Didgett and Cindy for checking in. I am glad that Kerri was able to show you the little one.

Ok, I must go as we are tutoring one of our Kazakh friends over lunch time. He has a job interview in three weeks so he needs a lot of practice.

Sometimes things just take a long time

Well we were really hoping to be almost done with this process by now but it was not ment to be.

We are still here and will be for quite some time. Good thing we are getting use out of those really expensive plane tickets.

We asked our translator if for John’s birthday we could visit the boy all day. She laughed and ignored the questions. It was worth a try…

We were promised that all of the paperwork problems would be cleared up by tomorrow, but as all good things with this process we have been told it will not be until Thursday now. Tomorrow is their veterans day so no paperwork will move. Oh well. If I felt that complaining would get me some where I would give it try. Something tells me it would be futile, so we will continue to be patient and wait. When you meet our son you will see why all of this has been worth it. Soon enough he will be officially ours.

Also for all of you who have asked he is now 11 lbs. Yes he is very small, but remeber he was born almost 3 months early and has been living in an institutional setting so he is more like 4 month old, not a 7 month old. Thank you all for your comments.

Happy Birthday to John!

We have now moved into our new (old) apartment. It is ok and when ever we feel like complaining we add up how much money we are saving and just laugh at all of the quirks. Like last night we had the pleasure of listening to really loud Russian television and of hearing our young neighbors play their instruments and sing in the courtyard.

We are still not sure what we will do for John's special day. Maybe we will just have to celebrate once we are home.

It is nice to see that you found the site Doug and Cindy thanks for sharing information with the kids at school. I think of them often and I hope that they are doing well.

This is Baby House Two, where Baby Bug has been since December.


This man actualy has ridden his brike from Paris France and he is on his way to India. He had too many amazing stories to share in this blog, but facinating none the less. The other girl is a friend from class.


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These are our friends that took us to the Museum and our friends from Arizona. We are eating traditional Kazakh food and we are helping them with their English and they have been teaching us Kazakh.

We are still out here.

Hello everyone,

Once again we have found ourselves very busy and without a working computer and I have neglected my loyal readers. We are doing very well and trying very hard to be patient with this seemingly never ending process.

The good news is that Baby bug is growing more and more attached to us. He laughs when he sees us which makes us beam with pride. We have gotten him a few outfits and like a true champ he spits up on them right after we get him dressed. It is a pretty neat trick. I know that he has my heart now as I got my first projectile spit up on me and it didn’t phase me a bit. It is very funny, because everyday they bring him in, they ask us not to shake him because he was just fed. You know they are pretty smart.

So, you are probably wondering what we do with the rest of our days here. Well we have actually made several really god friends. Most of them are from an English club which is for students who are learning English. One of them even found us a very affordable apartment for the next two weeks.

We love staying at the Pushkin Hotel, yet with our extended stay it is much too expensive for us to stay here the whole time. We will return to the Pushkin once we get custody of our little guy.

Oh, Beth he is a hat wearer:)

Today we also had a fabulous day after getting to only spend 40 minutes with our child. We went to the Kazakh history museum with our friends Matt and Betsy (from AZ) and Johnda and Yerzbo from Kazakhstan. They taught us all about the history of this amazing country. There is nothing like going to a museum in the Central Asia to make the USA seem really really young. Their artifacts are so old and so beautiful. Kerri you would have loved the may saddles they had on display. They showed how they were first wood to the nicer endurance saddles of the nomads. Jim they had amazing knives and bows and arrows that are like nothing we have at home. We have also heard rumors that the Kazakh orchestra will be playing here May 15th and we are really hoping to go, would you like to join us Lia? On Saturday’s class we were also treated by one of the students who played the dombra for us. I almost cried with the beauty of such and instrument and at her kind gester of playing just because we asked her to the previous week. We are also slowly learning Kazakh words and we are constantly learning new Russian words. For families traveling in the future I can not stress how helpful it has been to have a basic knowledge of the language.

I have said it before, and I will say it again; this country is amazing and the youth are resilient. I am very curious to see what these new leaders will make of their mother land.

News from Aunt Sharron

Good morning!

Since we know everyone is anxiously awaiting news, I thought I'd post today with a quick update from Birmingham.

First, Karon and John are well. They love working with the university students. Tomorrow, Monday, they are planning to move to an apartment that one of their students helped them find. This should give them a nice new home base for their extended stay.

Second, Baby Bug is getting stronger each day. With each visit, they exercise him, and they can tell that it is making a difference. Apparently yesterday he was so excited to see them when they came to visit, he laughed out loud!

Finally, thank you for your patience with the pictures as they walk through the legal steps of the adoption process. Kazakhstani law prohibits publishing pictures until the adoption is official.

Okay, y'all, that's all the news for the moment.

Enjoy your day,
Aunt Sharron

Rules of the Road

This is a bit of an oxymoron for here as I have not quite figured out if there are really any rules of the road. We have figured out that if you are in a cross walk drivers will stop. They will not stop far from you and they might just dodge you, but they will not hit you. Lanes, who needs lanes when you can just weave your way through as if you were a pedestrian. This we are getting more used to, but I just look away a lot. We are fortunnate to have a great driver who has a 10 month old baby at home, so he drives very carefully.

Today is also our day to meet with the university students. This interaction is one of the things that keeps us sane here. We are still staying in the hotel as the only apartment we saw had no furniture. We can and do cook most of our meals there.

Today is a beautiful and sunny day and Baby Bug was great today. He seems to be cutting a tooth so he was very drooly today. Mom you were right because he loves that little teathing ring. We also introduced him to the Baby Bjorn. He loved it and we are so glad that we brought it. We will try to have him in it for a little while everyday so that he is used to it before the very long plane ride home. Not that it will be any time soon.


We are ready for everything to be finalized but time seems to be going very slowly right now.

Onions, Mushrooms and Potatoes Oh My!

Yes these three things we eat every morning. And while the first week this was fun, now it is our on going joke. Root vegetables are in abundance and anything else to eat here is a special treat.

Yesterday we did get to see the Kazakh people celebrate May Day despite miserable weather. It was absolutely pouring down rain and quite cold but we braved it with the crowds and without an unbrella The big parade turned into more of a lot of people marching through the streets with ballons and unbrellas. We did however get to see several music groups preform in the square. Finaly we have seen the dombra played. Our Kazak friends that participate in the English classes have promised to play for us this Saturday as well. Turth be told, all of this rain is causing some cabin fever.

OK enough about our sight seeing. I know you only read on to hear news of our baby boy. Today he had lots of treats for his parents. He was in a great mood and laughed a lot today. He had the hickups and we would pretend like we had them too and he would laugh out loud. It was absolutely adorable. Everyday we do excersizes with him to get him stonger. The other big adoption news is that we were asked for John’s letter stating his need to get back to work soon. I hope that this will help this process move a little quicker. We keep reminding ourselves how worth it all is for this little guy.

We look forward to hearing from you each day, and we can’t wait to share our precious jewel with the rest of you.